Atlantic Yards Developer Accepts 8% Reduction in Project

By NICHOLAS CONFESSORE

Published: September 28, 2006

The developer of the Atlantic Yards project in Brooklyn said yesterday that the company would support changes proposed by the city planning commission earlier this week, including an 8 percent reduction in the project's size, additional public space and changes to the designs of several buildings.

Those changes were discussed at Monday's meeting of the planning commission and formally proposed in a letter to the developer, Forest City Ratner, released yesterday by Amanda M. Burden, the commission's chairwoman.

Ms. Burden also said the developer would ensure that at least 30 percent of the apartments built during the project's first phase will be below-market rental units. A total of 2,250 such rental units are planned for the project, which will have 8.7 million square feet. The developer, according to the letter, has also committed to building the remaining 70 percent during the second phase.

That commitment will be stipulated in housing and infrastructure subsidies that the city is negotiating with Forest City, which is also the development partner in building a new Midtown headquarters for The New York Times Company.

''From our perspective, we're agreeing to their suggestions,'' said James P. Stuckey, an executive vice president with Forest City. ''We think their strategic cuts make sense from a planning point of view, and allow the affordable housing to get built.''

Because the developer has not disclosed financial projections, however, it is difficult to determine if further cuts would have made it impossible for the developer to include the full allotment of low-cost housing.

The company's agreement was to some extent preordained: yesterday's formal recommendations followed months of discussion. Moreover, the new reduction only brings the project back to the original size proposed in 2003. Critics and supporters of the project have called for it to be shrunk between a third and a half.

Ms. Burden yesterday defended the relatively modest reduction in scale, saying that the project, which would extend east from the intersection of Flatbush and Atlantic Avenues near Downtown Brooklyn, would be in an ideal location for a high-density development. ''It is a transit hub,'' she added. ''It is at the crossroads of two wide avenues in Brooklyn. It can accommodate density, and density brings excitement, foot traffic, jobs.''

The developer will also adopt suggestions to maximize retail use of the street level, leave more room between the project's residential buildings and widen entrances leading from surrounding streets into the project's open space.

The Empire State Development Corporation, which is sponsoring the $4.5 billion residential, office and arena development, must still formally incorporate the new design guidelines into the general project plan, which it is likely to do. Under state law, the development corporation may reject the commission's recommendations with a two-thirds vote of its board.